Illegal Alien Raid Part Of FEMA Camp Drill

As predicted last week, ICE has begun factory raids of illegal aliens in Iowa. This was not very difficult to predict. The federal government last week leased out the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo, Iowa until May 25th and began moving trailers and generators on location. Reports from the Des Moines Register and the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier indicated that FEMA and ICE, two agencies within the Department of Homeland Security were involved in this secretive operation. Considering the large groups of illegal alien factory workers in the area of the fairgrounds, it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going to happen next. The Department of Homeland Security has now decided to go live with their test FEMA camp operation and are using illegal aliens as live subjects for processing purposes. This is a drill designed to setup a FEMA camp that will be used to process American citizens. Make no mistake about it, this has nothing to do with stopping illegal immigration. Rounding up a few hundred illegal aliens and asking them questions is going to do nothing to resolve the policies that have encouraged and facilitated the illegal alien problem. It does however serve as a fine test run for processing large groups of people through a FEMA camp.

Four Homeland Security buses with U.S. Immigration and Customs tags on them have entered the Agriprocessors Inc. complex.

The buses, along with a trail of SUVs and vans with Minnesota license plates, arrived at about 11:45 a.m. Federal agents descended upon this northeast Iowa community at about 10 a.m. today to conduct an immigration raid at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant. The ICE agents entered the Postville plant to execute a criminal search warrant for evidence relating to aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other crimes, said Tim Counts, a Midwest ICE spokesman. Agents are also executing a civil search warrant for people illegally in the United States, he said.

Immigration officials told aides to U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley that they expect 600 to 700 arrests. About 1,000 to 1,050 people work at the plant, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

What’s really suspicious about this whole thing is that Braley said that this whole operation is more of an investigation instead of an actual raid. According to his statements published in the Des Moines Register report, it appears as if the FEMA camp on the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds is going to serve as a processing center. This gives more credence to the observation that this exercise is nothing more than a drill to test processing procedures for large groups of people.

Aides to Braley, a Waterloo Democrat, said they have been told that “hundreds” of arrests are expected because the action is more of an “investigation” than an immigration raid, and specific individuals are being targeted for arrest as part of the investigation.

Jeff Giertz, a spokesman for Braley, said immigration officials left the impression that the Cattle Congress site will be used mainly for processing of suspects rather than any long-term detention.

Counts said that each person being arrested would be questioned by ICE and by Public Health Service medical professionals to determine if they have humanitarian issues, including child care giver or medical issues.

“Those interviews will aid ICE in determining whether people will be detained or conditionally released on humanitarian grounds, pending their immigration court appearance,” Counts said.

Back at the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds there are additional reports from the Des Moines Register of men wearing black uniforms from the Department of Homeland Security patrolling the area. There are also helicopters flying around. Why would they have men running around wearing black uniforms with helicopters flying overhead if they weren’t planning on using this site for something important? It is pretty clear that the fairgrounds are being used as a processing center for the illegal aliens that they round up. Where else would they take hundreds of people? It is doubtful that they would put them up in a five-star hotel.

In Waterloo, a helicopter cruised over the Cattle Congress fairgrounds about 12:45 p.m. as a group of about five reporters watched from a parking lot across the street from the main gate.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials in black uniforms were posted at the gate and referred all reporter questions to Tim Counts, the spokesman.

It is possible that we might see additional raids considering that the federal government has leased out the fairgrounds until May 25th. Either way, this operation will do nothing to resolve the illegal alien issue that most Americans are up in arms about, but it is very effective at training their people as to how to setup a detention and processing center for American citizens. The federal government is getting ready to put large amounts of people in camps and they don’t care what the American people think about it.